In order to become a member for the Ontario police force, as elsewhere across the world, one must first pass a series of evaluations, one of which is called the B-PAD, or Behavioral Personnel Assessment Device, test. This is a “behaviorally-based public safety assessment tool” that “requires applicants to demonstrate their responses to scenarios rather than merely describe what they would do.” The goal is to give interviewers an understanding of how an applicant will react in various situations that are ethically difficult and test interpersonal skills.

What Is Being Tested

Three main skills are tested by a B-PAD. They are:

Basic Problem Solving Skills – That is, how one finds solutions to difficult problems that involve various factors or demand the resolution of conflicting demands from various parties.

Interpersonal Skills – That is, how an individual conducts his or herself in the presence of others and how he or she is able to handle his or herself when confronted by disagreeable personalities.

Ethical Decision-Making Skills – That is, how an individual navigates through ethically murky situations, in which no “correct” decision is readily available.

How These Are Tested

B-PAD tests are conducted by having an applicant watch a series of simulations, after each of which the applicant is asked to respond as if he or she were in the situation. Each response is videotaped so that a series of raters not then present can evaluate the responses in order to secure the most-unbiased scores possible.

Interviewers’ direction and rating sheets are carefully crafted to minimize interaction between interviewer and applicant, to direct the focus more on applicants’ specific responses. These sheets comprise four sections:

A description of each scene, in order to prime the applicant for what he or she is about to view.

Interview questions, which should under no circumstances be deviated from, in order to ensure consistent testing from applicant to applicant.

Samples of both strong and weak responses, in order to compare with applicants’ responses.

The three main scoring competencies, which were mentioned above in the “What Is Being Tested Section.”

Why The B-PAD Is Trusted

This style of test has been proven to be successfully predict competence among applicants and behavioral actions of future employees. In addition to this, the test has been now created and proven to be “independent of rater race and sex, as well as ratees race and sex,” thus to eliminate bias as much as possible from the application process.

Some such biases that the test works to eliminate are:

Halo Effect – That is, the ability of one impression to influence the opinion of an unrelated area, such as a dealership with a high-end car surrounded with mediocre vehicles.

Leniency/Severity Bias – That is, when one often consistently scores one’s work too high or too low, respectively.

Central Tendency – That is, when one compares with a score with the center of a data set, calculated by the mean, median, or mode.

Personal Bias/Rater’s Mood – That is, how the rater feels at a given moment or deeply held prejudices owned by the rater.

Once you’ve been scheduled to take your Ontario Police B-PAD test, you may be anxious about taking it.

One of the best things you can do for yourself before taking the B-PAD is to practice. Practicing will help you to understand the test, know what’s expected of you during the test, and understand how your responses will be graded.

The three steps of getting ready for the B-PAD test are PREPARE, PRACTICE, PERFORM. If you can follow these steps well, you’ll have a better chance of successfully completing the B-PAD exam.

Prepare

The first step to practicing for the B-PAD is to prepare. Preparation is key when taking any test, especially a test as important as the B-PAD test is for future officers.

To prepare, you should first do some research. This can mean looking at tips for the exam and examples of scenarios on the internet or reading about real-life police experiences in the field and how they reacted in certain situations, but it can also mean talking to fellow police officers that have already taken the B-PAD test. Their insight may help you on your test, and to calm your nerves about taking it.

Another important part of preparing for the B-PAD is to learn to remain calm. The B-PAD is in place to test your interpersonal skills, and a lot of that involves patience and remaining calm. If you can stay calm while preparing for the test, you’ll be helping yourself learn to stay calm during the test and in the field where it’s normally done.

Tips for preparing for the B-PAD

Do your research

Talk to other police officers

Practice staying calm and patient

Practice

After you’ve prepared and researched about the B-PAD, it’s time to practice.

There are a few ways you can practice, both on your own or with another person.

One way you can practice is to watch sample B-PAD videos online and practice responding to the scenarios. You can even record yourself with your phone camera or webcam on your computer while you watch the videos. Then, you can play back the video of yourself responding to the situations. Did you sound too forceful? Did you use proper language and give clear solutions to the presented problems? If not, try again. Practice makes perfect. There are also practice B-PAD tests you can take online as well.

Another way you can practice is to look up or create role-play exercises to do with a partner. In this situation, you would respond to your partner calmly and try to solve whatever problem they present in a calm, civilized manner. You can also set a timer for you and your partner, a minute for your partner to present the problem and a minute for you to solve it.

Tips for practicing for the B-PAD

Watch practice B-PAD sample videos

Practice role-play scenarios with a partner

Look at B-PAD preparation programs online

Perform

Once it’s time to take the test, stay calm and remember what you practiced. It’s most important to stay calm, civilized, and respond promptly in order to be successful.

The (B-Pad) exam measures your capacity to perform police obligations in a wrongdoing circumstance that is like what you will confront at work. You will confront a few video wrongdoing scenes all through the video examination, enduring one to two minutes each. At the point when every situation completes, you have one moment to give a verbal reaction to the circumstance. With everyone’s eyes on you, it can be somewhat upsetting to face that time imperative. Hence, you will observe these ten systems to be to a great degree gainful in passing the exam.

1. Keep up a Professional Attitude

Exhibit polished methodology and appreciation at all times all through the circumstance by endeavoring to keep the peace all through your reaction time.

2. Keep Your Composure

Resist the urge to panic at all times, notwithstanding when video members show resentment or tumult to you or other individuals in the video situation.

3. Complete a Full Situation Analysis

Deliberately listen to the majority of the points of interest given in the video so you can recognize the unimportant realities from the genuine ones you have to determine the circumstance.

4. Reestablish Order to the Situation

Mitigate sentiments of strain, outrage and perplexity by taking control of the circumstance the minute the video stops and your reaction time starts.

5. Issue Procedural Directions

Utilize procedural directions tone while passing on an essential level of empathy to give everybody bearings on how they are to continue in the situation.

6. Make Hypothetical Solutions

Rationally create different resolutions to the current circumstance. At that point select the best one to exhibit toward the end of the video.

7. Give Clear and Concise Answers

Be immediate in your reactions when taking care of the circumstance. That guarantees you will give an unmistakable and precise determination inside the one moment reaction time.

8. Show Law Enforcement Demeanor

Approach the video situation as though you are now a cop. React and connect with the people appropriately.

9. Show Alertness

Pay consideration on each conceivable point of interest in the video situation. Investigate the circumstance by considering every conceivable boulevard of circumstances and end results in the circumstance. At that point make an intelligent conclusion.

10. Utilize a Real Life Approach

Address the general population in the video situation in the same way as you would, all things considered. Make the proper move if vital, including setting somebody collared.

To end up an Ontario cop, you have to exhibit the capacity to successfully speak with others and use sound judgment to determine issues that emerge while at work. Utilizing these methods on test day help you get one stage nearer to that objective.

You will confront a few video wrongdoing scenes all through the video examination, enduring one to two minutes each. At the point when every situation completes, you have one moment to give a verbal reaction to the circumstance. With everyone’s eyes on you, it can be somewhat upsetting to face that time imperative. In everything, practice is the best thing. You should always be determined to do what is expected.

The B-PAD Test, or also known as the Video Simulation Exercise, determines how you react and your ability to deal with a variety of situations. It wants to ensure that as a future police officer you will remain calm and can handle any situation that may arise. The test tries to mimic any real life scenario by having you watch a TV monitor and asks you to respond to the people you are watching. It doesn’t test your knowledge of police procedures but having a little knowledge on how an officer would react, will be a help when you take the exam.

Keep in mind that they will change up each BPAD Test, each test is unique, and so there is really no way to prepare for them. The test measures your responses and how you react, so the best advice is to stay calm and think before react. Your responses are videotaped and scored using validated criteria.

What you can expect is after you have watched the scene, you will see the word “respond” on the monitor and then you will have between a minute of two to respond verbally. The scene will fade out and the next one will begin. At that point you will be scored later by the administrator.

So why this is test given? As a police officer there is a good chance that you will be in a life threatening situation so the test assesses your behavior and composure in a “what would you do” role-playing similar scenario.

Some common sense preparations are to be well rested and eat a light meal before you take the test. Have a clear head and be relaxed. There are quite a few study guides on line but these will cost you. Also there are study guides available in your local library and bookstores, so use these and also check out the many YouTube videos that offer real life situations that you will most likely see on the test. Some of these are:

A traveler not obeying airport parking rules and threatening an officer to not tow his car

Pulling over a speeding car

Handgun scenarios in a traffic stop

Dealing with a medical situation with a death child at a home

You walk past your office and see an officer drinking and hiding it

You walk into a domestic argument with both parties scratching each other’s faces

As you can see. You can expect anything when it is test time. Also, with the current growing racial tensions, be prepared to be put in situations where you have to deal with minorities and what course of action you would take. This is becoming more commonplace today, so be ready for anything.

These are just a few of the many scenarios you might face, so do your homework and you will have a good idea of what to expect. The golden rule is that if you use common sense judgment and react as a professional would; with the goal of the saving of lives and carrying out the mission as your first order of business- you should do fine.

Before you can become a registered police officer with the Ontario Police force, you need to pass the B-PAD. The Ontario Police B-PAD test helps to gauge an individual officer’s presence, communication, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal social skills while on the job. The more you know about how to handle difficult interpersonal situations between yourself and others, the better your B-PAD performance will be.

How The Test Works: The Basics

The B-PAD is a video-based simulations test, taken through a TV or computer monitor. The situations presented through the monitor are reenactments based on real-life police work interpersonal situations. You must respond to each situation verbally and your actions and voice are recorded. The results are then scored based on standardized criteria.

The ways in which you respond to the situations during the B-PAD exam will be held as a good indicator of your future actions and reactions when in the line of real police work.

Facts about the B-PAD

You won’t be tested on your job knowledge, police procedures, your personality, or law knowledge.

You will be tested on your communication skills, interpersonal relations, common sense, and judgment skills

The test usually takes around 20 minutes to complete

Each situation is 1-2 minutes long

Vision and hearing tests are also often scheduled to be taken around the same time

Your responses are video recorded, reviewed by instructors, and scored based on standardized criteria.

The video will pause and you will usually have less than a minute to respond

One of the most important things to remember when taking the B-PAD it is essentially a role-playing exercise. To prepare for the test, you should practice role-playing exercises and do research on the web and in books about examples of real-life police situations and interpersonal encounters, and learn how appropriately to respond in context.

Another way to prepare for the B-PAD is to take a practice B-PAD test. They are available online. Or you can also find B-PAD example situations and practice the scenarios with someone else.

Tips to remember when taking the B-PAD

You are in a role-play situation- Though you should respond as if you are in a real-life situation, remind yourself that it’s just an exercise to help measure your interpersonal skills.

Remain calm and level-headed- Breath. Staying calm is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Offer help to solve the citizen’s problem- Offer appropriate solutions to the presented problem

Keep track of your time limits- Make sure to solve the problem and respond in time

Keep engaged- Even though the situations are not real, act as if they are in a civilized manner

If you don’t pass your B-PAD exam, you can take a retest. Retests are usually available to future officers 3 months after your initial, failed the test. If this occurs, take a time to go over what you did incorrectly, and learn to incorporate more of what you did do correctly when taking the retest as this is also most important thing ever.